TOKYO – A court has issued an injunction ordering two nuclear reactors in western Japan to stay offline, rejecting regulators' safety approval for the facility ahead of their planned restart later this year.

The Fukui District Court on Tuesday ordered the operator, Kansai Electric Power Co., not to restart the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Takahama plant in Fukui prefecture, which is home to about a dozen reactors.

The decision could delay Japan's nuclear restart plans. All 48 Japanese reactors are currently offline.

A group of residents and their supporters requested the injunction, saying a massive earthquake exceeding the facility's quake resistance standards could cause tremendous damage to the region, similar to the Fukushima crisis following the March 2011 quake and tsunami.